India had
agreed to extend this Test series from two to three matches at the request of New Zealand Cricket
and in return for that, it had requested some practice for the players who
were not part of the ODI squad.As a
result, six Indians — Rahul Dravid, V.V.S. Laxman, Amit Mishra, Murali Vijay,
Dhawal Kulkarni and L. Balaji —were invited to play in New Zealand’s domestic
circuit before the first Test. The tour then brought New Zealand
Cricket (NZC) an income of more than $25 million from a deal for television
rights.

The visitors won
the first Test and drew the next two, making it the first time that India had defeated New Zealand on their own pitches
in a Test series since Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi's team had beaten the Kiwis in
1967-68.

The press disparaged the
Indian Board for urging New Zealand Cricket to dissociate itself from any
players with connections to the ICL, and even called tour manager and former BCCI
secretary Niranjan Shah "a travelling goon".

India also
won the one-day series 3-1 before losing both 20/20 internationals.

The Indian squad left Mumbai early on Thursday 19 February for New Zealand.
A strenuous journey, prolonged by transit stop-overs at Hong Kong and Auckland, was followed
by baggage-collecting delays.

After enduring a 10-hour flight
from Hong Kong, they waited for another three hours at Auckland
before boarding a flight for Christchurch,
arriving on 20 February which made a 27-hour trip from Mumbai.

•Harbhajan Singh captured six wickets for 63
runs in New Zealand’s
second innings

•

•

•.

Tour
Summary

P

W

L

D

Aban

Test Matches

3

1

0

2

-

Other first-class matches

0

-

-

-

-

ϯ Minor matches

0

-

-

-

-

§ One-day
internationals

5

3

1

1

-

⊕ 20/20 internationals

2

0

2

0

All Matches

10

4

3

3

-

Return
to India

AucklandQHong KongQIndian airports

The cricketers flew out of Auckland on 8 April, the day after their last match in Wellington. They returned
home in batches to different cities early on Thursday 9 April.

Dhoni, Gambhir, Sehwag, Ishant
Sharma and Mishra landed at the capital’s Indira Gandhi International
airport. Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan, Munafand Kulkarni — returned to Mumbai.Some members of the support staff of the
team also landed in Mumbai

The south-based cricketers,
including Dravid and Laxman, went directly to Chennai.

Time away from India

49 days(19 February to 9 April)

Finances

Accounts
of the tour

Postscript

The players had barely 24 hours
at home before they had to leave again for the IPL.

This was the last Test tour for
Venkatesh Prasad and Robin Singh, who were sacked as bowling and fielding
coach following the team's disastrous Champions Trophy campaign in
September-October 2009.